The Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics have shared the greatest rivalry in the NBA. As of now, both franchises are tied at 17 championships a piece so far in league history. However, there was a time when the biggest dream of any Lakers player was to beat the Boston Celtics. The Celtics beat the Lakers on eight occasions in the NBA Finals before LA managed to get one up on Boston in 1985. In fact, the biggest dream that every Laker had, would not have been possible without the contribution of players like Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Bryon Scott among others.

In Magic Johnson’s ‘They Call Me Magic’ series, Hollywood icon Samuel L. Jackson claimed that the Lakers represented Black America during their rivalry with the Boston Celtics.?

Incidentally, Boston was considered to be a hostile territory for the people belonging to the Black community. Many players have criticized Celtics fans for their supposedly racist remarks over the years, including LeBron James. In the four-episode docu-series, Magic Johnson revealed the glories of his journey on and off the court.

In fact, Johnson played a critical role in making the Los Angeles Lakers a championship-winning team under Jerry Buss. He won five championships with the Lakers, winning two of them against the Celtics in 1985 and 1987.?

The racial aspect of Lakers vs Celtics rivalry

Back in the day, the Lakers roster was filled with elite athletes from the Black community. In other words, LA was a more favorable place for the Black community as they saw players from their community representing the team. Unlike LA, Boston was considered to be a somewhat hostile place by many people of color at that time.

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Incidentally, Boston fans have been involved in numerous incidents against Black athletes. Therefore, winning against the Celtics became the most crucial goal for the West Coast franchise.? ?

While talking about the Lakers-Celtics rivalry, Samuel L. Jackson also gave his take on Johnson’s docu-series. Jackson is known for his excellent roles in Quentin Tarantino’s films. The widely acclaimed Hollywood actor said,?“Lakers were Black America’s team and the Celtics were White America’s team.”

Jackson laid out that people from the African-American community resonated with the success of the Lakers.

Boston wasn’t a fun place to play for the Lakers

Boston was seen as a hostile environment by the Black community. Thus, the black population generally rallied behind the Lakers during some extremely tough and violent times.

As a result, things often became extremely serious. Former Lakers veteran Bob McAdoo gave his take on the treatment of Boston Celtics fans. The two-time NBA champ said, “I knew I had that anger and hate built up in me for the Celtics. I was ready to go.”

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Incidentally, McAdoo had a bad experience playing with the Boston Celtics in 1979. He came to LA in 1981 and won the championship against the Celtics in 1986. That explains why Jackson felt that the Lakers were a living and breathing organization that the Black community felt closely associated with in America.